Report: Glenn Dorsey tears bicep

Glenn Dorsey hurt his arm Friday during practice. It was unclear what he injured exactly. Adam Schefter just cleared that up. Dorsey tore his bicep according to Schefter. Dorsey may miss the entire season.

After Dorsey tore his bicep, Mike Purcell took over as the first-team nose tackle for the rest of practice. Tank Carradine was the first-team three-tech in place of Justin Smith, who is injured, and Quinton Dial was the first-team five-tech in place of Ray McDonald, who also is injured.

Yeah, I’d say its likely a vet NT will be added in the near future, though I’m hoping they aren’t needed for the final 53. I’m hoping Williams will be ready by the time the season starts, and Dial will develop into a viable NT option.

The remaining d-linemen have bodies closer to 3-4 End, 4-3 Tackle, 4-3 Under Tackle. There is loads of talent, but most are tall guys. Are any true 3-4 (4-3 under) blowing ball NTs like Williams and Dorsey.

Quinton Dial is listed as NT. He’s a bit tall, but having a great camp.

One bright spot… Doresey was NT but often played single gap. 49er D-linemen are required to play multiple positions. I’m expected them to adjust (as well as can be expected) until Ian is ready.

To everyone… what kind of changes (if any) do you anticipate in the 49ers defensive scheme?

Fangio won’t make major changes, but do you expect more single gap looks?

We seem to put players that fall within a certain ht/wt ratio at the NT. Dorsey,Purcell, Williams and Ramsey all fall around the .25 range. So with Williams and Dorsey now out that leaves just Purcell until either Ramsey or Williams returns.

It doesn’t have to be the center’s RIGHT shoulder just so you know. Technically a 1 is inside shade of guard, 2 is head up, 3 is outside shade. 4 is inside shade of tackle, 5 head up, 6 outside. Once you get outside of this you can start getting into ghost 7 and 9 etc if there is no tightend to align to. You also hear wide 9, which is en vogue at the moment which is outside TE or where the TE would be.

But he’s 6’5″, isn’t he? Hard to keep pad level low in the middle. He could be a power rusher, but OL may get leverage on him in run game. But he has been getting work there already, so he’ll get tapped.

He’s a big man. If he has what it takes to do that kind of dirty work, I think Willis might benefit. Mike Purcell on the other hand is undersized for a pure nose tackle, and lacks the explosiveness and quickness to be an effective pass-rushing 3-technique defensive tackle or 5-technique defensive end. I think the most he would be is a rotational run stopper and nothing more…..